Letter: Human trafficking

By Valeria Truitt, New Bern

Published: Thursday, July 31, 2014 at 09:06 PM.

Jamie Kirkpatrick’s letter printed July 28 on human trafficking seems to have started a conversation, which Calvert Weatherly’s letter of July 30 continues. Perhaps more contributions to the conversation will clarify how large a problem we’re talking about.

First, there is a misconception about what “human trafficking” means. It’s what we would call “slavery” except that slavery involves one person owning another. Traffickers, by whatever name they are called, do not own the people whom they control — there’s no need to and it would be inconvenient. It does not always involve sex, although the United Nations report suggests 86 percent of trafficking in the United States is for sexual exploitation and 17 percent is for forced labor. Forced labor is used to harvest crops, prepare and serve food in restaurants, clean houses and businesses and other similar jobs.

Second, there is a misconception about how people are lured into a position where they can be trafficked. In the U.S., about three out of four victims are from impoverished non-English-speaking countries in Asia and Latin America. In many cases, the trafficker misrepresents job opportunities to entice people who simply want to work. They are held in place by imaginary fees, by threats, by having their documents such as passports confiscated, by a language barrier, by a sense of shame, and by threats against their families. In the U.S., many are young teens running away from abuse at home. None of them can simply “walk away” because they have nowhere to walk to.

Third, there is a misconception about the extent of human trafficking. Although nobody knows for sure how many people are enslaved today, the U.S. government estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 foreign nationals are brought into the U.S. every year into involuntary servitude. The U.N. estimates that there are 27 million enslaved people around the world.

Finally, do people really get kidnapped off the street? Remember the headlines when the three women who had been held in captivity for a decade by Ariel Castro in Cleveland, Ohio, were released? Clearly, it does happen.

Jamie Kirkpatrick’s letter printed July 28 on human trafficking seems to have started a conversation, which Calvert Weatherly’s letter of July 30 continues. Perhaps more contributions to the conversation will clarify how large a problem we’re talking about.

First, there is a misconception about what “human trafficking” means. It’s what we would call “slavery” except that slavery involves one person owning another. Traffickers, by whatever name they are called, do not own the people whom they control — there’s no need to and it would be inconvenient. It does not always involve sex, although the United Nations report suggests 86 percent of trafficking in the United States is for sexual exploitation and 17 percent is for forced labor. Forced labor is used to harvest crops, prepare and serve food in restaurants, clean houses and businesses and other similar jobs.

Second, there is a misconception about how people are lured into a position where they can be trafficked. In the U.S., about three out of four victims are from impoverished non-English-speaking countries in Asia and Latin America. In many cases, the trafficker misrepresents job opportunities to entice people who simply want to work. They are held in place by imaginary fees, by threats, by having their documents such as passports confiscated, by a language barrier, by a sense of shame, and by threats against their families. In the U.S., many are young teens running away from abuse at home. None of them can simply “walk away” because they have nowhere to walk to.

Third, there is a misconception about the extent of human trafficking. Although nobody knows for sure how many people are enslaved today, the U.S. government estimates that between 14,500 and 17,500 foreign nationals are brought into the U.S. every year into involuntary servitude. The U.N. estimates that there are 27 million enslaved people around the world.

Finally, do people really get kidnapped off the street? Remember the headlines when the three women who had been held in captivity for a decade by Ariel Castro in Cleveland, Ohio, were released? Clearly, it does happen.